Fact: Chronic Pain is Real and Disabling

Many of our clients have chronic pain and suffer greatly. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that chronic pain affects approximately 116 million Americans (about 1/3 of the total population).

The Institute of Medicine has stated that “pain is all too often undertreated in the U.S.” The article goes on to explain the difference between acute pain and chronic pain. Acute pain is generally a warning signal to stop doing something that is harmful to your body. Chronic pain is described in the article as an alarm that “keeps sounding and producing pain long after the original cause is gone, probably due to a malfunction in the central nervous system.”

Chronic pain is a terrible condition. Having to wake up each day with no medical improvement is so difficult for our clients to endure. But in order to prove that your pain is severe and restricts and limits you constantly, it is very important to be careful when filling out disability forms and medical forms. Do not overstate your limitations.

Be sure your treating doctor keeps a record of the level of pain that your experience so that if called upon to comment on whether your pain interferes with you ability to work, the doctor can provide this important link between pain and function.

Proving chronic pain remains a challenge in disability matters, but we at Bonny G. Rafel can help.